Bucket for impulse water-wheels.



PATENTED FEB. 6, 1906.

w. 3. SMITH. BUGKBT FOR IMPULSE WATER WHEELS.

APPLICATION FILED OUT. 87. 1903.

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UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

BUCKET FOR IMPULSE WATER-WHEELS.

No. 811,802. y

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Feb. 6, 1906.

Application filed October 27,1903. Serial No- 178,765.

To (wt w/eom it may concern:

Be it known. that I, WILLIAM STUART SMITH, a citizen of the United States, residing at Berkeley, county of Alameda, State of California, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Buckets for Impulse Water-Wheels, of which the following is a description.

My invention relates to buckets for impulse water-wheels of the so-called hurdygurdy type, and comprises means whereby certain losses inherent with buckets as heretofore constructed are eliminated and an in creased percentage of the energy of the stream is made available as useful effort on the shaft.

Figure 1 of the drawings shows a plan of the improved bucket. Fig. 2 shows a sectional elevation on the lineA B. Fig. 3 shows an alternative sectional elevation 011 the same line A B.

Examination of the drawings shows that this improved bucket consists of a main portion 1 and auxiliary or supplementary portions 2. I11 Fig. 2 a stream of water is represented as entering the bucket, the circle, section-lined with dotted lines, representing a cross-section of this stream. The main portion 1 shows a complete bucket as heretofore constructed, my invention being the addition of the supplementary portions 2, the relation of which to the main portion and the effect of which will be described later.

Before further describing my invention I give a brief statement of the conditions requisite for maximum efficiency with waterwheels of this type and show wherein these conditions are not met with buckets as here tofore constructed.

Referring to the main portion 1 and regarding it as representing a complete bucket as heretofore constructed, the practice is to receive the entire stream into this bucket, splitting it by the dividing wedge 3 into equal portions, which are supposed to be received on the surfaces of the bucket without impact and be reversed in direction without spattering, the flow over the deflecting-surface being smooth and free from agitation. This condition is, in fact, necessary in order that the highest efficiency may be attained.

Inorder that the stream may be received on the deflecting surfaces without impact and be reversed without agitation, it is requisite that the stream-lines meet the surface in the direction tangent to the curve of the surface. This requirement is rigidly met only by those portions of the stream which are in planes immediately adjacent to the dividingwedge 3, the remaining portions meeting the bucket-surface at an increasing angle as the distance from the wedge increases. When the stream is ust being divided-th at is, during the first stages of the divisionthe two halves are somewhat curved, with the result that the inner portions of the stream for some distance each. side of the dividing-wedge meet the surface at an angle giving high efficiency; but as soon as the stream touches the bucketsurface it begins to fan out as a thin layer, and the outer portions are freed from all force constraining them to move in a continuous curve. The result is that these portions impinge sharply 111 the bottom of the bucket. For the water entering the bucket at such an angle the theoretical efficiency is but little more than fifty per cent. and there is a further bad effect, owing to the fact that it impinges into and interferes with the free flow over the bucket-surface of the water from the inner portion of the stream.

A stream to give highest efficiency should be elongated in the plane of the water-wheel, as this form will give small thickness each side of the dividing-wedge and will cause a larger percentage of the water to meet the bucket tangent to the surface or closely approximating to a tangent than is possible when the stream is circular. In attempting to use a stream which is initially of elongated form two serious difficulties are encountered. One is that such a stream is very difficult to discharge from a nozzle, as it is an inherently unstable form. The other is that such a stream requires a bucket of considerable length measured in. the direction of the radius of the water-wheel in order that it may receive the requisite volume of water for developing the desired power.

The object of my invention is to produce a bucket in which the outer portions of a stream which is initially circular that is, the portions marked 9, Fig. 2-are prevented from impinging on the bucket-surface at an angle which will render them inherently inefficient and will further cause them to interfere seriously with the free flow over the bucket-surface of the water from the inner portion 10 of the stream. To accomplish this, I provide supplementary buckets 2, which are suitably secured to the mainbucket casting in such a manner as to pre IIO vent their interfering with the flow of water over the main-bucket surface. These supplementary buckets may be separately made and mechanically secured to the main-bucket casting by connectors 4 5 6 7, as shown in Figs. 1 and 2, or they may be integrally cast with the main bucket, as shown in Fig. 3. The independent construction with mechanical connection will be preferable, owing to the facility it ofiers for properly cleaning the main-bucket surface and for making renewals and repairs. These supplementary buckets have their inner edges 8 sharpened, so as to cut the stream without causing it to spatter, the inner or deflecting surface at these cutting edges having such a direction that the stream is received on them with the streamlines parallel to their original direction and such that the outer portions of the stream represented by the zones 9 of the cross-section of the stream are intercepted by and turned in the auxiliary buckets, while the central portion of the stream, represented by the elongated portion 10 of the cross-section of the stream, is received in and turned by the main bucket. Thus the outer portions 9 of the stream are prevented from impinging into and interfering with the free flow of the central portion of the stream in the main bucket and are taken on the deflecting-surfaces at an angle which will cause amaximum of efficiency to be obtained instead of their striking the bucket-surface at an angle which will cause serious impact, as with buckets heretofore designed. With this design the portion of the stream entering the main bucket is elongated in the direction of the plane of the wheel, a form which theoretical considerations show to be necessary for best efficiency. At the same time the advantages of discharging from the nozzle a stream of circular cross-section are retained.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

1. In a bucket for impulse Water-wheels of the hurdy- 'urdy type a divided main portion which is su stantially a complete bucket and supplementary curved portions located on opposite sides of the dividing-wedge of the main portion and suitably secured to the main portion.

2. In a bucket for impulse Water-wheels of the hurdy-gurdy type a divided main portion which is substantially a complete bucket and supplementary curved portions located on opposite sides of the dividing-wedge of the main portion, independently constructed and mechanically secured to the main portion.

3. In a bucket for impulse water-Wheels of the hurdy-gurdy type a divided main portion which is substantially a complete bucket and supplementary curved portions symmetrically located on opposite sides of the dividingwedge of the main portion, symmetrically placed with respect to the curved parts of the main portion and suitably secured to the main portion.

4. In a bucket for impulse water-wheels of the hurdy-gurdy type a divided main portion which is substantially a complete bucket, supplementary curved portions symmetrically located on opposite sides of the dividingwedge of the main portion, symmetrically placed with respect to the curved parts of the main portion, the inner or working curved surfaces being approximately parallel to the inner or working curved surfaces of the main portion.

5. In a bucket for impulse water-wheels of the hurdy-gurdy type a divided main portion which is substantially a complete bucket, supplementary curved portions symmetrically placed with respect to the curved parts of the main portion, the inner or working faces of the main and supplementary portions being approximately parallel, there being a clear space between the main and supplementary parts through which water flowing over the working surface of the main part can freely pass, the supplementary parts being suitably secured to the main part in such a manner as not to interfere with the free discharge of water from the main part. 7

6. In a bucket for impulse water-wheels of the hurdy-gurdy type a divided main portion which is substantially a complete bucket, supplementary curved portions suitably secured to the main portion in such a manner as not to interfere with the free flow of water over the surface of the main portion, the side of each supplementary portion which is adj acent to the dividing-wedge of the main portion being substantially parallel to this dividing-wedge, and at a distance from it which is less than half the diameter of the stream of water entering the bucket, there being clear space between the sides of the supplementary portions and the dividing-Wedge of the main portion through which a portion of the stream discharging into the bucket can freely enter the main portion.

7 In a bucket for impulse water-Wheels of the hurdy-gurdy type a divided main portion which is substantially a complete bucket, supplementary curved portions suitably secured to the main portion in such a manner that the sides of the supplementary portion adjacent to the dividing-wedge of the main portion are substantially parallel to this dividing-Wed e and at a distance from it which is less than alf the diameter of the stream of water discharging into the bucket, the metal at the lips of the sides of the supplementary portions which are adjacent to the dividing wedge of the main portion being reduced in thickness so as to present cutting edges to a stream of Water impinging upon them, the curves of the inner or Working faces of the supplementary portions at these cutting edges terminating in planes Which are substantially parallel to the plane of the Water- Wheel.

8. A bucket for impulse water-Wheels provided With a multiplicity of dividing edges in the path of the entering stream, these dividing edges being substantially parallel to each other and lying in the median plane of the Water-Wheel or in planes parallel to this medianplane and being substantially the lines of tangency of the deflecting-surfaces of the bucket With the median plane of the Waterwheel or with planes parallel to this median plane.

9. A bucket for impulse water-wheels provided with a multiplicity of dividing edges in the path of the entering stream, these dividing edges being substantially parallel to each other and lying in the median plane of the Water-Wheel or in planes parallel to this median plane and being substantially the lines of tangency of the deflecting-surfaces of the bucket With the median plane of the Water- Wheel or with planes parallel to this median plane, and independent curved defiecting-sur faces arranged in two groups, these groups being substantially duplicates and symmetric ally placed on opposite sides of the median plane of the water-Wheel, the members of each group being approximately concentric and having the receiving edges substantially tangent to the median plane of the Waterwheel or to planes parallel to this median plane, the discharge edges being at angular distances from the receiving edges approximating to one hundred and eighty degrees. WILLIAM STUART SMITH. Witnesses:

W. H. SMYTH, D. B. RICHARDS. 

